


Anew

by itslaurenmae



Category: Barkskins (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Child Loss, Mid-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26901169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itslaurenmae/pseuds/itslaurenmae
Summary: Mathilde Geffard had been many things in her life: oldest daughter, favorite sister, young bride, second wife, childless mother, widow. Innkeeper’s wife, now the innkeeper.As she cut vegetables for the day’s stew one chilly fall morning, she remembered something her mother had always said to her after a hard winter - “we begin anew.”
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Anew

Mathilde Geffard had been many things in her life: oldest daughter, favorite sister, young bride, second wife, childless mother, widow. Innkeeper’s wife, now the innkeeper. 

As she cut vegetables for the day’s stew one chilly fall morning, she remembered something her mother had always said to her after a hard winter - “we begin anew.”

“We begin anew,” Mathilde said to Francis when the ship landed in Quebec City. “This is a place to make a life.”

We begin anew, she said to the ground as they buried their daughter that cold winter morning, the sound of the church bells echoing in the frosty air.

We begin anew, she said to the mirror the morning after Francis died, his throat sliced for reluctantly doing the right thing. 

He hadn’t been a bright man, but he had figured out in just enough time to shut up and listen to her. It had gotten him killed, and while Mathilde wasn’t exactly happy he was dead, she certainly wasn’t sad, either. 

“We begin anew,” Mathilde said to Renardette, wiping a cloth across the young girl’s forehead. This child could not replace the one she’d lost, but Mathilde wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she let just anyone take her away.

Renardette said nothing as Mathilde repeated the sentiment like a prayer. But the child also didn’t look way from Mathilde as she’d held her hand and scrubbed away the dirt and grime. 

“We begin anew,” Mathilde said to Delphine, wiping a tear from her cheek. “He is not the man for you, but he is not the only man. Come, stay with me. Help me, I’ll help you.” 

How she’d become something of a mother to two young women not of her body was wholly new.

First Renardette, with her fox-shaped birthmark that she refuses to hide behind a curtain of hair any more.

“Up,” Renardette said one day, pointing at her hair as she handed Mathilde her brush.

“You want me to braid your hair?”

“Up,” Renardette repeated. Mathilde obliged. Renardette, with her quiet steps and wide, all-seeing eyes. _We begin anew._

And then Delphine, her mark hidden, so marred by a man that couldn’t control her - a mark so unsettling it had driven her first husband to annul their marriage.

“Mister Cooke is kind,” Delphine said after coming back from Cooke’s place of business. “He made me tea and we sat by the fire. He showed me this.” She opened her hand and showed Mathilde a tiger’s claw. _We begin anew._

Both girls marked by someone or something else, signs of their otherness etched onto and into their skin - Renardette with her birthmark and Delphine with her scarred abdomen.

And Mathilde - innkeeper’s wife now innkeeper, childless mother of two. 

They were looking into the future now together, cutting vegetables and cooking and making do. _We begin anew._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. You can find me on tumblr at @itslaurenmae.


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